THE INTAKE AND NUTRITIVE VALUE OF FRESH, FROZEN AND DRIED SORGHUM ALMUM, DIGITARIA DECUMBENS AND PANICUM MAXIMUM

Sorghum almum, Digitaria decumbens and Panicum maximum were fed in fresh, frozen (−20 C) or dried (85° C) form to 21 wethers in metabolism cages. Neither freezing nor drying had a significant (P>0·05) effect on voluntary intake, dry‐matter digestibility or organic‐matter digestibility. Drying depressed the apparent digestibility of the nitrogen in all grasses but only in the case of D. decumbens was this significant (P<0·05). Freezing also depressed the apparent digestibility of N while both freezing and drying reduced N retention, compared with the fresh feed. None of these differences was significant. Freezing and drying are thus methods of pasture preservation that can be used to study the intake and dry‐matter digestibility of tropical pastures, but both methods may introduce bias into the measurement of N digestibility and retention.